21,567 Bq/Kg of cesium was measured from the black substance found in Chichibu city Saitama by citizen’s radiation monitoring organization.

From the following up test with Chichibu city and Ogano machi local government, 13,000 ~ 19,000 Bq/Kg of cesium was measured.

It’s reported by Asahi newspaper that the governmental staff in charge commented like this below,

The atmospheric dose is lower than the safety limit of 10,000Bq/h. (so decontamination is not needed.)

The confusing nature of the official’s statement is noted by Fukushima Diary: ‘Atmospheric dose’ or measurement of the cesium concentration in the powder? ‘Bq/hour’ or Bq/kilogram?

Google Translation

Private organizations cesium in excess of becquerel 20 000 per kilogram from black powder found Muse Park Chichibu (Chichibu, town Ogano) in the parking lot […]

Tajima representative sweeps collected about 1 km in the field in the report of the powder residents on November 2. Was measured in three days, it was detected 21 567 becquerels per kilogram. […] This day is a measure of the powder in the presence of the person in charge and the town Ogano Chichibu. 19,000 becquerels of cesium to 13,000 same has been detected. Personnel showed a wait-and-see strategy decontamination is not “air dose is below the 10 000 becquerel per hour basis province” as.

Pointed out that “radioactive material in excess of 10,000 Becquerel must be managed carefully,” said Tajima representative asked for administrative support. Black powder is said “Do not soil or blue-green algae from reported cases of similar such as Fukushima.”

25 Sep 2012 – The international community uses the becquerel per cubic meter of air (Bq/³), while the USA uses the picocurie per litre to measure radon. … reference level is 100 Bq/m³, with an upper limit that should not exceed 300 Bq/ m³.

13 Jul 2011 – On a less positive note, a separate study from a group led by Tomoya Yamauchi at Kobe University found a number of radiation hotspots in Fukushima city, some 60 kilometres from the power plant, where radiation levels of up to 47,000 becquerels per kilogramme were measured. These sites should be evacuated immediately, as the radiation there greatly exceeds the 10,000 becquerel exposure limit set by the Japanese government.

Hi StPaulScout – Visually driven lecture by historian John Dower reviews Japanese people's 20thC experience. Powerful, haunting – he narrates a series of still photographic images. I've meant to bring it to ENE attention. It's about 1hr followed by Q/A. You and/or others at ENE might want to check it out.

http://youtu.be/XZAFftGl9Kk
"Post War Japan: Cultures of Defeat, Cultures of Conflict"
(plural 'cultures' is intentional. Dower reminds us that a national culture contains many elements, many 'subcultural' influences, etc.)

I watched it for first time about a week ago. I was riveted to the screen – and moved. I kept saying: "Oh, now I understand better what these people have been through."

It also reminded me how little we appreciate depth of experience, trauma and values and why, of any people whose experience we don't happen to share.

The summary already notes most of this, but Bq is becquerel the SI unit for radioactivity, which is the measure of radioactive decays per second. Hence Bq/h is decays per time per time, an impossible measurement. There's a few possible interpretations, but as dose rate is never given in becquerels, the quote is nonsensical.

The amount of material in which a given level of activity is found needs to be given, whether it's one liter (typical for fluids, though one square meter is also used for relatively low contamination), one kilogram (typical for solids), one square meter (used for fallout, the radioactive substances will quickly sink through the surface earth) or one ocean or whatever.

If you like a car analogy, and apparently everybody loves a car analogy, becquerels is like the number of car accidents in a year. For this to make sense, it's important to know whether the measurement is for one road or whole world. Dose rate is much like the monetary cost of those accidents, counted through some formula where a truck is worth so and so much, a SUV something else, a bicycle that etc. Neither will really let you even guess at the human cost, of course.

If they've really determined becquerels of caesium, then they've taken a gamma ray spectrum of some sort, giving them some guess of where or what it is (if they didn't know already). Nuclear waste incinertion is probably a good guess for black powder anyway.

Manna fron Heaven! Food of the Gods!
Cosmic hashish! Return of The Blob!
Melted blackbirds! Dehydrated spiders!
Licorice dropped by Mystery Outsiders!
Airborne black pepper from factory processing!
Crumbling shoe soles – please stop obsessing!
That's radio-phobia and bad for the health!
J-Gov says it might be source of new wealth!
And if not, they'll decontaminate
by choosing low bidder!
No need to examinate
anything scary or radioactive
that gets in the way of being pro-active!
Have kids sweep it up – make it school project!
Teachers – make sure none object,
by bullying, shunning and humiliation!
Stay where you are with no compensation!
That's how it goes
in Subservient nation.

Oh, by the way
Subservient Nation is where YOUR kids are,
wherever that is.
Don't think so ?
Look what's been done so far
poisoned air, water, land and the food,
dumbed down curriculum, war for your good
prison for profit with content provision
by redefining what's lawabiding,
corporate persons, gangs in the hood,
financial gaming for all understood as OK
as long as 1% freedom remains, say
have you seen the latest sexscandal
or big accident, the newest fandangle
to buy or to rent for no money down
because so many jobs somewhere else have been sent?
Need I continue? It's more or it's less,
with freedom of choice it's said we are blessed
but the choice gets defining in narrower bands
by vandals in charge of social control scams.

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